Brown Eyed Girl: Green Turtle and Great Guana Cays

When last we left you, we had just arrived at Green Turtle Cay on March 3. We only planned to be in Green Turtle for 5 nights but the weather did not cooperate so we ended up staying 7 nights. The marina we stayed at had a choice of dockage rates. You could pay $36 a night and pay separate for the meals or you could pay $78 a night and all of that would be credited to your meals. Guess which one I chose? Actually everyone in our group chose the second plan so we ate most of all meals at the restaurant which had very good food. They had different specials for lunch and dinner every day. They had a pizza night, a prime rib night and a steak night. Of course they had $6 rum drinks called a "Tipsy Turtle" which were pretty darn good. I was known as the "Bud Light" man by the end of our stay. There was a pool on site but it was up on a hill away from the marina so we never used it.

We had a golf cart for three days so we got to see all of the island several times. The city of New Plymouth is about 2 miles from the marina and is just like the post cards. Small houses painted bright colors, narrow roads, bars and restaurants all surrounded by blue water. There is a famous bar called the "Blue Bee Bar" that has a signature drink called the "Gombay Smash". The recipe is a secret. We talked to the owner and she said that the Today Show had been in a couple of days before and they tried to get the secret but she would not give it up. She said she was already famous and didn't need to share her drink ingredients. There are at least 3 grocery stores and two hardware stores in town for a population of 500.

We had a nice stay and we met a lot of other people who were stuck in port but we were ready to go. Everyday we would casually talk to all of the others about the weather and when we could get through the "Whale" without capsizing. Green Turtle as well as most of the other stops we are going to are on the Sea of Abaco which is fairly protected from Atlantic so you can travel most any day except that in order to get to the Eastern spots such as Guana and Marsh Harbor you have to leave the Sea of Abaco and go into the Atlantic for a couple of miles and then back into the Sea of Abaco. The only way into and out of the Atlantic is through a narrow cut between rocks that can have high waves. Basically you have to decide when the winds and the waves will be small enough so you can make it through. Each day all of the boater would look at each other and say "So it looks like Friday" or "Thursday is iffy but Friday looks better". As it turned out Saturday was the day so we put everything down on the floor and left at 7:30 A.M. for an 18 mile ride to Great Guana Cay. We were all a little nervous and there were 4-6 foot swells that moved the boat around pretty good but we made it fine and landed in Orchid Bay Marina about 9:30. Orchid Bay is about in the middle of the island on the Sea of Abaco side and is very nice but pretty empty so we didn't have any trouble docking. The water is more expensive here (.35 per gallon) then Green Turtle (.20 per gallon) but the dockage is less so it all works out. There is another famous bar called Nippers that has a pig roast every Sunday so we are going there today for that and then leaving tomorrow for Marsh Harbor.